Probably Not Effective

Insects are the most successful group of creatures on earth, greatly outdoing mammals in number of species and sheer mass of life. Furthermore, despite great effort, human attempts to eliminate certain insects, such as mosquitoes, have utterly failed. In insects, it appears, humans have met their match.

When it comes to the more mundane level of avoiding insect bites, however, our species is doing a bit better. The chemical DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide), found in almost all insect repellants, is highly successful especially against mosquitoes, flies, fleas, and ticks.

Contrary to popular belief, DEET appears to be a very safe substance when used in a normal fashion. After many decades of use by millions of people, use of DEET has only been associated with a small number of adverse reactions, and those side effects that have been reported seem to represent unusual personal responses rather than toxicity in the ordinary sense.
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Proposed Natural Treatments

Due to fears about the safety of DEET (probably unfounded), many natural products have been marketed as safer substitutes. However, while some of these may be effective to a certain extent, none matches the power of the chemical.

One of the best of these appears to be a proprietary product containing soybean oil and geranium oil. In a small but well-designed study, this product, when applied to the skin, prevented insects from biting for an average of about 90 minutes.
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This benefit was equivalent to that of a low-strength DEET repellant (4.75%). However, researchers found that high-strength DEET repellants (24%) provided about 300 minutes of protection.

Proprietary bath lotions marketed to repel insects do not appear to provide more than a slight level of bite protection (unless DEET is added to them).
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The herb
garlic
, when taken by mouth, may act as a mild insect repellant. A 20-week
double-blind, placebo-controlled trial
followed 80 Swedish soldiers and measured the number of tick bites received during the garlic and the placebo treatments.
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The results showed a modest but
statistically significant
reduction in tick bites when soldiers consumed 1,200 mg of garlic daily. However, another study failed to find one-time use of garlic helpful for repelling mosquitoes.
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Wrist bands impregnated with mosquito repellants do not appear to offer more than marginal efficacy.
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Sonic mosquito repellers do not appear to work at all.
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Oral
vitamin B
1
also appears to be completely ineffective.
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Revision Information

This content is reviewed regularly and is updated when new and relevant evidence is made available. This information is neither intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new treatment or with questions regarding a medical condition.

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